Saturday, September 29, 2001

A company called Edison Media Research has now released disturbing exit poll data from this city's mayoral primary of last Tuesday.

The survey of voters suggests that twice as many Democrats feel education is the major political issue here, as feel it is 'preventing future terrorist attacks.' Only eight percent of Republicans, three percent of Democrats, believe the next Mayor needs to be "strong in a crisis."

Lost in these inconceivably cold numbers: only 26 percent of those eligible even voted. It may be that the number of New Yorkers personally unaffected by The Trade Center attack is also only 26 percent.

This is a city whose mayor yesterday casually reminded anyone with free time, to try to attend the funeral of any of the 340 dead firefighters. This is a city where readers of one newspaper woke up this Saturday morning to a profile of a priest who has spent all but three days out of the last 18 at Ground Zero, blessing the workers, blessing the dead, blessing body parts.

This is a city where, nearly three weeks after the horror, there is still so much news of death that it is still reverberating slowly. People are just now learning of friends and acquaintances killed. As of Wednesday morning, I had lost one friend. This morning, I know I have lost three. At least.